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I wish to thank everyone who came out in record numbers to support the local clambakes which were held by many of our churches, schools and non-profit organizations in the ward. There were record crowds. Once again, it only reinforces the fact that when we care about the institutions and organizations in the community we can and will make a difference.

Talk about record crowds, what a great turn out and great weather for the “Remembering the Sights and Sounds of Euclid Beach” event held on Sunday, September 30. This year we had the largest antique and classic car show we ever had. Thanks to all who attended. Then there was the Men’s Health Fair held at the Recreation Center on October 7th sponsored by Cleveland Clinic, NEON, my office and Zeta Omega Chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. We hope to be able to sponsor this event annually and I look forward to working with the sponsors on future health-related events and programs.

I also wish to thank all the volunteers involved, especially Commander Sammy Morris and officers of the 5th District, for their efforts in making the “Haunted Jail” Halloween Party at the 5th District a big success as well as the Staff and Volunteers at the Collinwood Recreation Center for making the Big City Boo at the Center another smashing success. As one of the financial supporters of these two events, it goes without saying how important it is that our children have a fun and safe Halloween. Thank you to all who donated their time, talents and funds.

Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson took his 2018 State of the City address directly to the people by moving the annual event to 7 p.m. and making it free and open to the public. The address traditionally was held in Public Hall during the middle of the work day and was a paid event primarily attended by Cleveland’s business and philanthropic community. This year, Cleveland residents, neighborhood organizations, business leaders and members of the general public all joined Mayor Jackson for the event. Mayor Jackson said he intends to use the same new State of the City format next year.

Collinwood Reads and Collinwood & Nottingham Villages Development Corporation (CNVDC) have joined forces! To kick off their partnership, they held a Family Game Night on Septemeber 28, 2018 at Five Pointe Community Center. The event, hosted by Literary Innovations, was jammed packed with literacy-based games, like bingo with colors, shapes, numbers, scrabble, and many others. There was a book giveaway where every child that participated received a new book and refreshments were served to all who attended. Over 35 residents took part in the fun!

The Lexington Bell Community Center hosted Moms First Consortia on Wednesday, October 24 at the Five Pointe Community Center. The event entailed presentations on Smoking Cessation and Substance Abuse Prevention. Over 25 moms attended the event with their children. Not only was the event educational, but fun. The moms who attended got to participate in a raffle with special prizes that were picked with them in mind.

by Dan Polletta and Dave DeOreo re-printed with the permission of ideastream

Friends often told Lachlan MacKinnon he should share his over-the-top stories from growing up in Collinwood in the 1980s, but he resisted. MacKinnon, a former punk rocker who is now married with a son, felt if you didn’t know him or his family the stories wouldn’t make much sense.

Then came the presidential election of 2016. The results didn’t turn out the way he or many of his friends had hoped.

“After the last presidential election, my Facebook feed was real depressing. I tried to write the stories to cheer myself up and other people liked them. A friend would say that ‘this story reminds me of that,’ and that would remind me of some other stupid thing I did as a kid. Somebody said, ‘If you type these up, I’ll put these out.’ I thought she was joking, but she wasn’t,” MacKinnon said.

Much of “Let Me Tell You a Story: Small Stories of a Large Family” revolves around Lachlan’s father, Bill MacKinnon.

“When I was real young, he was just like a typical dad. He had six kids to deal with and there was never enough money around. He was always working and when he wasn’t at work, he always seemed angry to me. His marriage with my mother was not great, so there were adult things, but as a kid, you don’t pick up on it. As an adult, I pick up on it now. When he read the book he laughed but said, ‘I don’t remember being angry like that all of the time.’ Maybe it’s just my memories of it, but I talked to my brothers and sisters and they agreed that he seemed pretty angry,” MacKinnon laughingly said.

For 40 years, both paid and volunteer staff members at Hospice of the Western Reserve have walked side by side with the loved ones of more than 100,000 individuals in the final phase of life. As one of the earliest nonprofit pioneers of the hospice movement in the U.S., Hospice of the Western Reserve’s mission has always focused on helping families make the most of the time they have remaining. Care is individualized for each family’s situation and needs, upholding the dignity of each person served.

The City Club of Cleveland commissioned this mural, which was installed Oct. 24 and 25 on the side of the parking garage at New Tech Collinwood High School.

The parking deck at New Tech Collinwood High School now stands as a monument to free speech.

A mural installed Oct. 24 and 25 on the side of the deck facing St. Clair Avenue is one of three displayed publicly in Cleveland to spark reflection on the role of free speech in the city.

The City Club of Cleveland, a forum for free speech, commissioned the works last year to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its "Freedom of Speech" mural by Cleveland artist Elmer Brown. The installation at New Tech Collinwood came during Free Speech Week.

Christopher Darling, who died in June, created the Collinwood mural, using three tableaux to represent what he considered to be the underpinnings of the City Club’s mission: dialogue, diversity and democracy. Darling was a painter and illustrator whose works have been published and exhibited internationally. At the time of his death, he was teaching at Kent State University's School of Visual Communication Design.

LAND studio facilitated the New Tech installation. Scherba Industries was the installer.

The other murals were installed in August at the Bonfoey Gallery at Euclid Avenue and East 17th Street, by Playhouse Square, and this week at the Cleveland Public Library's Rice Branch on Shaker Boulevard.

Collinwood & Nottingham Villages Development Corporation (CNVDC) along with Job Corps celebrated Make A Difference Day on October 26, 2018 at Five Pointe Community Center. We partnered with VOA: Veteran Resource Center (775 E. 152nd St Cleveland, Oh 44110) which is a transitional housing and supportive service facility for homeless veterans. They have housing capacity for 54 homeless male veterans. The Five Pointe Community Center and students/staff from Job Corps collected donated toiletries and socks to make care packages for the homeless veterans. Our goal was to make 50 care packages and write support/thank you letter to the veterans.

Honoring the right to free speech and inspiring Clevelanders to consider the role of free speech in our civic landscape, The City Club of Cleveland partnered with Cleveland Metropolitan School District to install a new public mural at New Tech Collinwood High School. This is one of three murals by local artists as part of its “Freedom of Speech Mural Project.”

Birth certificates, drivers licenses, and social security cards are valuable documents we all need to rent a house, to turn on our utilities, to attend school, and so much more. There is a technology called blockchain that can allow all of us to save our documents safely online. This system called blockchain can protect our information from hackers, ensure privacy, while allowing us unlimited use of our information to our best benefit. With blockchain, we all have the ability to provide permission to others, like caseworkers and employers, to view our information for the purpose of receiving and renewing services, seeking employment, and enrolling/re-enrolling in school. With this secured viewing of our documents, we control access to our documents, while having the capacity to share the same documents for multiple purposes. The ability to share the same documents in multiple directions creates the power to pursue our goals for ourselves, our children, and our community.

St. Jerome kicked off a yearlong Centennial celebration with the Annual Clam/Steak Bake on September 30th, the Feast Of St. Jerome. A lovely Mass celebrated by the Most Reverend Roger Gries set the tone for the day and the year of celebrating our faith and our community. Coffee and donuts followed and the school was opened for visitors. An exhibit of memorabilia in the library included a home movie of our founding pastor, Monsignor Leo Hammer laying the cornerstone of the present church. Also on display were Monsignor Hammer's vestments and a Latin Missal that was given to him by the Ursuline sisters for his 25th anniversary. The missal was kindly loaned to us by the Hammerfamily. We were delighted to welcome many members of the Hammer family including George Hammer, Monsignor Hammer's nephew.

During the month of October, the school had an assembly to kick off our Pennies for Pasta service project. Students learned about Leukemia and how it affects people of all ages. Through visual “blood cells and veins” they observed how the body is affected in a negative way causing Leukemia. They were each given a box and asked to collect pennies, other coins, and bills that will help in research to cure this disease.

We’ve broken ground on the Willoughby-Eastlake School of Innovation Stream Restoration Project! The project is in the City of Willoughby Hills in Lake County in the Euclid Creek Watershed at the headwaters of the East Branch of Euclid Creek. The Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District received a $156,462 grant through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's Section 319 Grant Program to conduct the restoration project. The grant requires a local match of 40% which is committed by the City of Willoughby Hills through their Lake County Stormwater Management Program Funds, up to $104,000, and by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD), up to $50,000. The project will remove a culvert with maintenance issues (replacing it with a riffle ford), create instream habitat, and reconnect the stream to its floodplain. Biohabitats was awarded the project on June 7th, 2018 and 60% designs were submitted and approved September 27, 2018.

Thanks to HGR Industrial Surplus’ Customer and Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad (CVSR)’s former Safety Manager and Current Volunteer Tony Caruso, I had the chance to tour the CVSR’s railyard and learn some important historical information about the railroad. What a treat, especially because HGR’s site has ties to the Nickel Plate Road, and so does Tony.

In November of 1918 an armistice was signed to bring to an end to World War I better known as “the war to end all wars.” The armistice was signed between the Western Allies and Germany to bring about the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front and took effect at the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918.

In November 1919, President Wilson, proclaimed the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words, "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"

November 11th signifies the ending of hostilities in 1918. Unfortunately, we have been involved in far too many more wars and conflicts since 1918. Since that first commemoration till today it is a way of honoring ALL VETERANS who “volunteered to boldly defend and valiantly preserve our Nation’s liberties and freedoms.” The American Veteran should always be seen as the model of true heroism, service and sacrifice. Our Veterans are separated by the generations from the time our Country was founded to today and yet these same men and women are a testament to the inherent spirit of patriotism.

This month’s Senior Spotlight shines on a Euclid woman whose positive attitude and hard work has made a difference in her quality of life. Dorothy Ferguson, 71, has Lupus, a disease that causesfatigue, muscular pain and immunity issues. However, since Dorothy began her wellness journey at the Euclid YMCA back in 2014 and has added a regular regimen of exercise to her healthy routine, she and her doctors are pleased with the results.

Holiday Tips Holidays traditions bring an abundance of cheer and happiness, however, for many it can also bring anxiety, stress and extra pounds. Here are some tips for maintaining your weight this holiday: